How To Stop Being A Loser
Starring: Richard E. Grant, Simon Phillips, Marin Kemp, Gemma Atkinson
Director: Dominic Burns
Rating: 1/5
The UK has always had a great tradition of producing great romantic comedies and this week sees actor turned director Dominic Burns turn his hand to the genre.
James (Philips) is a loser who is useless with women but finds his luck changes under the tutorage of pick-up artist and womanising guru, Ampersand (Craig Conway).
But as James learns the dark art of seduction he begins to wonder if Ampersand is all he appears to be and questions what would truly make him happy in life.
The main issue with this movie is the characters are just charm free and that creates a sort of distance between them and the audience.
Unfortunately you have little empathy or sympathy for any of them and there is just not that connection with characters of story that acts as the hook to draw you in.
I can understand what director Burns is trying to achieve - he’s trying to make a British comedy with an American feel to it - but the script is just a little bland there is not enough wit about it and it really does lack laughs.
The ideas behind the central character; no confidence at talking women and finding a partner is probably something that we can all relate to but there is just something missing from James - maybe he just lacks likeability.
He is surrounded by a good support cast and actor such as Martin Kemp & Richard E. Grant popping up along the way does break the monotonous of the story.
Sadly this movie just fails to work on every level, when you have lost interest after twenty minutes you know you are in for a long haul.
There are some quite nice messages about valuing friends as highly as relationships but that is about as much as you can take away from this movie.
There have been so many good rom-coms produced in the UK over the years - Four Wedding & a Funeral being the one that stands out - but How To Stop Being A Loser falls way short of this!
How To Stop Being A Loser is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw